Shoblongoo

...so I was thinking I was going to cheese this game super-hard after getting use to lunatic difficulty on the newer games. Not gonna lie. Still a ton of deaths and restarts on Part 1. Goodness--these Dawn Brigade kids love getting one-rounded.

What's this guy even taking about? Free speech is a creature of law and without the law, it does not exist. There is no "legal aspect of free speech" and "other aspects of free speech." Free Speech is The Law of Free Speech. That is all.

I actually do remember that being one of the major issues with RD. …like every Fire Emblem game has its top tiers and low tiers; some characters are just naturally BETTER at what they do. But RD was particularly wonky with its top tiers being off-the-charts broken, and its low tiers being complete trash. I don’t recall that ever really bothering me though. Lets see if that’s changed (the new games have admittedly gotten much better at not putting out characters as game-breakingly busted as Naesala and Tibarn, or as worthless as Kyza and Lyre)

Like--Play NetHack or Sleash'Em or Stone Soup, or any dedicated roguelike dungeon crawler to see how to implement the feature correctly (and how satisfying it feels to clear the dungeon, when the game really makes you work for it) Randomize every dungeon so that you never get the same dungeon twice: every time you go in its different enemy groups and different traps and different loot in different places. ...as opposed to the monotonous "okay...i'm entering fear mountain. This group of arcanists spawns when I walk in. Then theres the room with the gargoyles. This path takes me to the speed ring; that path takes me to the blessed bow. It really shouldn't even be a hard thing to implement. Fire Emblem runs on RNG. Use it.

...that about sums it up... No amount of replays makes the writing any more palatable. But there's an undeniable fun to doing and redoing the conquest campaign that few games manage to capture in replay value--every map is such a finely-tuned puzzle, and the game never slows down or lets up. Birthright is a snoozefest. And the more I think about Revelations, the more I come to the conclusion that it was just a lazy cash-grab. It wasn't even poor design choices or limited resources. It was never meant to be a true "third path." It was $17.00 DLC. No one cared if it was shit-on-a-stick. They made money on it. It did its job.

...you're ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) protected if you disclose your autism, and your employer can make reasonable accommodations for it. ...you're subject to termination-for-cause if your employer neither knows nor has reason to know of a protected disability, and thinks any issues you're having with responsiveness to workplace communications is just plain inattentiveness or lack of care. I get the whole not-wanting-to-use-the-disability-as-a-crutch thing. But if you have a legitimate diagnosis, you have rights and you should probably be exercising them. I'm seeing a potential issue here though. When you started your job, as part of the hiring process, you may have been presented with paperwork asking you if you have a federally recognized disability under the ADA. On this form, you would have had to check either [YES] or [NO]. Do you recall filling out such a form? If so: did you or did you not indicate that you have an ADA-recognized disability?

Basically doing a play-through to see, after all these years, how well it holds up to the newer titles. ...Is it as good as I remember, and are the new games as shit as I think they are? ...Or am I just wearing nostalgia-goggles, and remembering everything I love about the game + forgetting its flaws. Curious if anyone else has had this experience . Where they go many years without touching the games, played the new releases, then went back to revisit Tellius with a modern Fire Emblem PoV? Is it still the game you remember? Did it age well, or did it feel dated? ...so far its still the game I fell in love with 10 years ago... Even still throwing me a few curveballs. (My god--I forgot how squishy Miciah is) Anyone else have a return-to-tellius story? EDIT: Hooked up my Wii, if a mod would be so kind as to edit the thread title.

Storywise, I regard Tellius as the high-point of the series. And anything I can throw out in terms of "they could have done that better" or "this was a missed opportunity" is just me being nitpicky. The games built a remarkably fleshed out setting where every country had its own history and flavor, with a dynamic morally-ambiguous conflict and highly developed factions-within-factions on every side. Gameplay wise however, I feel they cut a lot of corners because they were so laser-focused on making their maps tell a story, they at some level forgot they were also making a game. Some of those giant-hordes-of-green-units and "you're fighting nothing but cats and tigers lol have fun" maps could have used a bit more polish. And I get that as a matter of plot the Laguz Royals are supposed to be hilariously overpowered--but holy hell--they could have toned it down just a bit. To this day: Tibarn is probably the most gamebreakingly stupid unit in the history of the franchise.

No..as a matter of constitutional law; it actually is. It is impossible for CNN to perpetrate a "violation of free speech" because CNN is not a state actor or government agent. You have a right to engage in protected speech without being punished by your government. There is no constitutional right to protection from retaliation from private actors (i.e. Boycotts, negative press coverage, etc.). The negative reaction of a private entity to your free speech (i.e. CNN running a negative story on you) is itself a protected form of free speech. UNLESS the method of retaliation separately violates another law (i.e. Extortion, Assault, Breach of Contract, etc.). But then you're in the realm of criminal conduct and tort litigation--not the constitutional right to free speech.

I blame the citizens too, tbh. I've said it once; I'll say it a million times: The Beautiful, Ugly thing about Democracy is the People get the Government they Deserve.

...I have a slightly less grim-dark view of our foreign policy since WW2... For better of for worse, America emerged from WW2 as the greatest military and economic superpower of the modern age. We did so at a time when it was unclear what the post-WW2 political landscape would look like; whether liberal democracy and free trade and human rights would proliferate in a new age of international cooperation. Enabled by all these new technologies in international travel and electronic communications that kept making it more and more inevitable--globalism was now the way of the modern world, and it wasn't good enough to have the kind of nationalist free-for-all that had preceded the great World Wars. Or whether WW2 was just going to be a short lull between WW1 and WW3, and the consequence of the global age was going to be global war on an unimaginable scale. There was a power void that needed to be filled. America was the only country in any real position to fill it. And though we've made some truly horrific missteps along the way--going to war in Vietnam, feeding drug lords in Central America, getting into bed with the Saudis--on the whole our advocacy for a vision of globalism that promotes the proliferation of liberal democracy and free trade and international respect for human rights has made the world a better place then it would have been if America had never stepped up to fill the power void at all. Now what we are seeing today with the rise of Trump is the creation of a new power void. A recognition that America today is weak and stupid and not the hegemonic world presence it once was; the next century will not be shaped by American power, and there now exists an opening for a new superpower to rise as the guiding hand. ...a rapidly growing China. ... a post-Soviet autocratic Russia ...a united union of European states, exerting power together-as-one. (less likely now post-Brexit, but still a possibility) Most likely, China. But so much of the conflict you're seeing in the world today is, I think, a consequence of the global recognition that America is in decline. And while I think its certainly preferable that American should fall out of power then continue to lead the world in its current state. I am unconvinced that if we had stayed true to our early policies of the kind pursued under Eisenhower and Kennedy and the great American presidents of the 20th century--had we not gone so far off the rails--that our continued hegemonic power would be such a bad thing.

Just switched from comcast to dish satellite and get international TV now; my wife watches all the Taiwanese programming, so I get to see a little bit of how Trump is being covered in Asia. They're running a caterpillar with Trump hair munching through leaves while they play the graphic of Trump body-slamming CNN @ World Wrestling Entertainment, as their coverage of "international news" from America. He's not taken as a serious figure. They regard our current president as a cartoon character; something light-hearted and silly to laugh at for comic-relief, between serious headlines. I guess if you don't have to live with the knowledge that hes running your country and you're just on-the-outside-looking-in, that's a pretty healthy way to look at it.

Oh I'd take it even a step beyond that; worse then "double standard." It's not that they don't know or are in some kind of partisan denial as to what he is. This is willful indifference to character traits that they know to be disqualifying; It is painfully clear that Donald Trump is unfit to carry out the duties of his office. He cannot meet on good terms with world leaders, command the respect or confidence of the security agencies beneath him, or engage lawmakers on pressing issues facing the country. He attacks the free press and the independent judiciary and tweets like his words have all the consequence of a contestant on The Bachelor. And 40% will purposefully turn a blind-eye to it, for the promise of the regressive policies he's put forth. They will allow an I'll-tempered, unqualified crook to sit the Oval Office if it means they can gut the EPA and rollback the national conversation on criminal justice reform and public healthcare, and maybe deport a bunch of Mexicans.

I just find it absolutely hilarious that Trump--and they're still behind him--has done everything in his first 5 months that these guys spent the last 10 years telling us made Hillary disqualifying unfit for the presidency; you can't have a president under FBI investigation, with constant suspicion of cover-ups and criminal misconduct casting a cloud over the White House. You can't have a president who mixes public office with private business and profits off of the presidency. You can't have a president who thinks they can't be held accountable for bad behavior and says one thing one day and another thing the next with no sense that trust and credibility matters; who attacks anyone who has a bad thing to say about her as a liar and a fraud and a politically-motivated hack. That's why Hillary is THE WORST. Trump's great though. Because...reasons...

Facts don't have a liberal bias. If you know the issue and know your argument and still find the argument exceptionally difficult to source and present; that's a sign that the argument to be presented isn't a very good one. And you're crafting reasons to match up with your stance on an issue, rather than crafting your stance on issues to match up with good reason. Defending sincerely held belief when belief and good reason align, irrespective of ideology or how many people disagree with you, is a simple, natural thing.

Propose something vague and rhetorical and ungrounded in fact, then claim that you're being treated very unfairly when it's poorly received + met with more specific and serious discussion of the underlying issue is Trump governance. Trump support is largely the same.

Its a pretty obvious tell as to where Republicans are at on healthcare that after 7+ years of telling us the ACA was the worst piece of legislation in modern history and riding the promise-of-repeal to their majorities in Congress for 3 consecutive election cycles, they still don't have any plan for how to do it better. Its a political football to them. They are not serious about coming to a policy fix for a broken system of healthcare financing in America; its just an issue they want to have around so they can keep running on it. The obvious fix is a medicaid-for-all style public option as a baseline floor of access to care, with private insurance existing as a luxury good for persons of sufficient affluence to buy more expansive coverage rather than as the primary means of coverage for the general population. (i.e. the Australian System. The Taiwanese System. The Israeli System. The system of every 1st world country that provides better access to healthcare for its citizens at a lower cost then the United States) But thats "socialism" or "big government getting between you and your doctor" or whatever the talking point of the day is. And no Republican today is prepared to put that on the table. (Hence why for all the grief over how bad the ACA is they can't come up with anything better)

Mozu x Donnel. A match made in bumpkin heaven. hows aboutttttttt. Oh, I don't know. Lets say, Farina.

You can physically discipline a child without being abusive. And all-bets-are-off if Ike’s raising the kid to be a fighter, like Griel did with him. Literally the first thing we see in FE9 is Greil beating Ike with a stick and hitting him so hard he falls unconscious, as punishment for losing his focus during training. Combat training aside, there’s certain behaviors that Ike would find absolutely intolerable and, if present in his child, would surely earn a disciplinary smack. Like if Ike has a kid who’s old enough to know better. And Ike hears said kid calling a laguz a “subhuman.” Said kid is getting a smack to the head as part of the don’t do that again.

Mangs and Ghast need to do more colabs. They've got such good chemistry. Their individual content is good in its own right. But the stuff they put out together is the lulziest FE content on youtube.

…oh Ike would absolutely be the kind of parent to use corporal punishment… Remember when little boy Sothe stows away on Nasir’s ship in FE9? Ike isn’t playing fuck-around when Sothe refuses to ask questions; he squeezes his face until he starts talking. (Mist IIRC has to tell him to stop, because it’s just a little boy and he’s being too rough) Ike would not hesitate to hit a rebellious child.

The politics behind the Eliwood/Hector Erik dynamic is so much more interesting, IMO. Ostia is the seat of Lycia’s League of Lords. Laus feels slighted, does not believe Ostia should hold such power, and holds Laus to be the true seat of Lycia. It went beyond personal dislike amongst the involved lords. Its a multigenerational thing that’s around in FE7—for Nergal to play off of when he’s looking for potential sources of conflict to release death and destruction, and grant him the surge of power he needs to call his dragons. And its still around 20 years later in FE6—for Bern to play off of when they’re looking for potential sources of conflict to divide and weaken Lycia. Its one of those subtle touches that makes the Elibe Saga so masterfully well-done. The writing in Echoes was good. But it wasn’t FE7 good.

...oh god... I think I just threw up a little bit in my mouth.

...lol same guy... To the point of the last post. When asking What kind of a father would Ike be?, something you do have to consider is Who's the mother? Because as much as some of the sloppier writing in Awakening and Fates would have as believe that this is immaterial—i.e. Odin has the same relationship he has with Ophelia if he marries Elise that he would have if he marries Felicia—realistically, it matters. In a game that takes its writing seriously-as the Tellius installments do—it should matter ALOT. Yes…we can make some general statements about what Ike would be like as a father based on his character regardless of who he winds up with…but beyond that… The relationship he has with his child if the mother is Lethe. And the child is branded and base-born. And the mother has a personality-type of a kind where she is going to be watching her cub like a wrathful lioness + clawing your eyes out if you mess with her baby. That’s going to be very different then the type of relationship Ike has with his child if the mother is Elincia. And the child is a royal. And the mother has courtly duties to attend to before she can be a mother + there are political considerations as to what to do with said child. So you do have to go just a little bit down the shipping hole to try and imagine what exactly some of these relationships would look like.

Ike x Elincia is…problematic... FE9 Elincia is too much a damsel-in-distress type figure to arouse any romantic interest in Ike. Then FE10 Elincia is way too heavily portrayed as having romantic feelings for Geoffery. Then after-the-fact. Its canonical that Elincia does not abdicate her role as queen after FE10 and spends the rest of her life in court, so whosoever she takes as a husband must live in her castle and spend the rest of their life as a court figure. …I just can’t see Ike ever being comfortable in or happy with that role…for anyone… I could perhaps see Ike as an illicit paramour. Who Elincia occasionally takes on-the-side after entering into some loveless political marriage with a local noble, with the unspoken understanding that the marriage is a sham and Elincia is the Queen, and the Queen gets to bed whoever she wants because she’s the Queen. …Supposing that such a union produced a child… Well now that would be quite the scandal, wouldn’t it. Elincia wouldn’t be able to keep the child in court; a blue-haired bastard with no resemblance to the King and an overwhelming resemblance to a certain renowned hero who’s known to pay the Queen—visits—would be just a bit too on-the-nose for the court nobles. The most logical course of action would be for Elincia to give the child to Ike, to be raised by the Greil Mercenaries and grow strong under his/her father’s care. And that would be a parent-child relationship worthy of a convoluted, “I’m so sorry I couldn’t tell you sooner” FE plot. -How long does Ike wait to tell the kid his/her mother is major royalty? -How does he break the news? -What set of circumstances would need to arise before Ike tells his child “…oh…by the way son…keep this on the downlow. You’re a prince. And the rightful heir to the throne of Crimea.” Which is almost more interesting then the idea of Ike and Elincia actually getting married.